Endangered barn owls nest in Ouse Valley Park

The discovery was made by members of the Parks Trust who found the birds inside a nest box which had been installed by city owl expert Paddy Jackson and a Trust volunteer.

The population of barn owl pairs across the whole of the UK is only between 3,000 and 5,000 so any discovery is deemed highly important.

Martin Kincaid, The Parks Trust’s biodiversity officer, said: “We are thrilled that these magnificent birds are breeding successfully on our land. We’ve installed six boxes so far and plan to install more boxes around the parks this winter. Ringing the chicks is important so that we can accurately monitor the barn owl population in our parks and try to help protect this species.”